vinaigrette

I have to admit that I had until now never made a vinaigrette dressing, as simple as that is. On a recent Sunday, however, we were having a light dinner of pre-made ravioli from our local Sprouts (mini-Whole Foods-style) grocery store. We decided to have a salad with some of our container garden spinach along with mushrooms, so I decided to make a vinaigrette for the dressing. I had a recipe in my Living Cookbook database for a vinaigrette by Food Network chef Geoffrey Zakarian. It actually came from a recipe for roasted chicken with bibb lettuce, and called for adding juices from the chicken to the vinaigrette. Of course with no chicken I had no juices to add.

For the vinaigrette proper, Geoffrey listed the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons finely minced shallots
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

I added all of the ingredients as listed (surprise!) except for the tarragon, which I forgot because the ravioli was done and I was trying to get dinner on the table.

It turned out well. Terry really liked it. I thought it was good too, but next time I will cut the mustard in half (and perhaps use dried regular mustard). I’ll also remember the tarragon, though it will be dried.

More experimenting to do.